Software utilities

Microsoft decided to release the source code (well, part of) of the .NET framework, one of the most employed programming framework, used in ASP.NET websites and C# and VB.NET applications. The sources will be released with the Microsoft Refernce License, a very restrictive license (sources are not meant to be modified and redistributed, but only to help people debug their applications). Debug symbols can help programmers better debug their applications (i.e. ScottGu’s Blog shows how to “step into” the GridView DataBind method). More info on ScottGu’s Blog.

Eboostr is a software utility, created by a small software house, Moscow Development Office (MDO), which simulates the performance increase of ReadyBoost, a Microsoft technology, available only on Windows Vista. The performance increase is obtained by using memory in a USB drive (or another external memory device); those memories are usually slower than RAM, but faster than HD, so using them for cache could make the whole system much faster. It must be noted that the performance increase is not enormous, and it can be appreciated only on older systems with a small amount of memory or slow HDs. This could be useful for old systems, especially notebook. The advantage of Eboostr is that it can use also other types of memory, such as Firewire devices or external hard disks. and it can be used on Winodws XP too!

Autopatcher is a software that lets you install all the latest Microsft patches without the need to download the from Windows Update. Microsoft tried to shut this service down, due to legal problems with the WGA (winodws Genuine advantage) system (Microsoft anti-piracy system, that check if the Winodws copy is legal before letting you download the updates). Autopatcher’s authors claim that the WGA control is performed only on the SO copy that downloads the updates, not on the system where theyre going to be installed, so their software is completely legal. The tool was discontinued for a while, but with a post in their blog they announced a new development in thei software, with Microsoft permission, of course :-)!